UK GDP growth but pound fails to strive

28 October, 2016

Ashley Finill

The UK economy was handed some much needed positive news yesterday with the Q3 UK GDP reading coming out 0.2% better than excepted. The GDP figure showed 0.5% growth in the UK which was the first major post Brexit figure to be announced, however the only sector of the economy that continued to grow was services up by 0.8%, agriculture, manufacturing production and construction all shrank. The Pound initially reacted positively to this figure being released gaining over half a cent on the Euro but the gains were very short lived with the rates coming back down once again proving that even with strong positive data in support of Sterling still is not aiding to any significant recovery for the Pound as we are still edging toward sub 1.10’s and more worrying closer to forecasted parity against the Euro. Before the EU referendum announcement figures of this nature would have rallied the Pound on with significant gains against its competitors but this is a telling sign of what troubling times Sterling is experiencing and what lies ahead. With the month of October delivering disastrous record lows against both the Dollar and Euro, November could itself deliver blows to the Pound as the Bank of England Governor Mark Carney will address the public next week on the interest rate decision with a possible rate cut and a potential QE programme extension, should this be the case parity may be here sooner rather than later.

Today we see the US release their GDP figures in the afternoon, a positive figure is expected to be announced with 1.1% growth, should this be the case expected the markets to react and cause high volatility in the afternoon.

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